Accreditation reviews offer areas of improvement

Brighton Area Schools has asked out-of-district educators to review its performance as part of an accreditation process.

From Sunday through Wednesay, Brighton will host an AdvancED District Accreditation Review, where a team from Lansing will meet with school officials, parents and community members to gain a better understanding of the district’s strengths and needs.

Some of the areas looked into include vision and direction, governance and leadership, teaching and learning, resources and support, and improvement.

“The meeting will be conducted using a small focus-group format and will contribute to the team’s assessment and recommendations,” said Laura Surrey, Brighton Area Schools assistant superintendent of instruction. “Our goal with this process is to improve student achievement in all departments — academics, transportation, lunch period and so on. These all matter in children’s educational success.”

The team who will be coming out to Brighton is randomly selected. The Brighton administration asked teachers to find parents and community members interested in participating.

On Sunday and Monday, the team will be talking to the leaders. On Tuesday, they will be able to walk around the buildings and inspect them.

“We want them to see what the students are doing for a better reflection of how they are interacting and doing in school,” Surrey said.

After the three-day period, there will be follow-up interviews with Surrey and Superintendent Greg Gray for the final report.

“In a few months, the annual report will show where the progress was seen and what we can work on,” Surrey said, noting the district takes those results and does its best to improve the areas addressed.

Accreditation visits occur every five years. Brighton schools was the first district in the county to become accredited in the 2009-2010 school year, Surrey said.

“It’s nice to have unfamiliar eyes looking at what we are doing because they may catch something we don’t, and we want to make this environment the best for the students,” Surrey said.

During the 2009-2010 accreditation review, Brighton was asked to incorporate more technology and build more support systems.

“We’ve been working on these since we got the results — and, hopefully, it shows,” Surrey said. “We are excited to see the results of this review.”